Curatorial Practices and Publishing

Cave Dwellers is a theatrical presentation of cuddly yet spooky anamorphic soft sculpture and textile paintings made with a combination of traditional and modern techniques such as cutting, sewing, stuffing, digital weaving, and hand-embroidery. Installed in an environment resembling something between a cave and the holodeck, the works evoke a cavern of curiosities belonging to a speculative future where machines and organic beings have merged. Inspired by the language of science fiction films and nostalgic Natural History Museum dioramas, Smith presents an open-ended narrative of a diverse community of bio-technological beings living underground as the earth’s atmosphere surface has become inhospitable.

Join us for some fall, foliage fun with a show curated by the fantastic Kari Adelaide and Max Razdow (The Sphinx Northeast). The show, Gungywamp, takes its name and inspiration from a local controversial archaeological site of natural and man-made stone structures in Groton, CT. This exhibition brings together 4 magical artists, all dealing with aspects of architecture and psycho-geography.

NOTE: There will be in conjunction a two hour guided hike at Gungywamp on November 4th, 1-3pm, RSVP for information

GUNGYWAMP celebrates an instantiation of spirit in place and location, taking its name and inspiration from a nearby mystery site of natural and man-made stone structures: Gungywamp, in Groton, CT. Psychogeography, a term coined by Guy Debord to illustrate the human tendency to gather emotion from sites in the world, provides a welcome footing from which to inspect this territory. In ­gathering four artists who may herald its structures or engage in different ways, we hope to explore an architectural presence as well as the hidden edifices of a landscape. This show, in addition to being an honorific tribute to a site inhabited by several cultures through the vagaries of time, aims to explore the manner in which the artist can summon a spiritual energy into location. These echoes may be traced by physical traits as well as lingering memory images, perhaps traversing unseen borders like tulpas from the fog.

Gungywamp's most weird feature might be its "Cliff of Tears", an overhanging rock structure claimed by some to create overwhelming emotion in passersby. Like a baleful version of Sedona's vortexes, its gray mass leers from romantic tangles of southern New England woods, and has caused wild speculation about nearby petroglyphs' ties to far flung cultures like the Egyptians and Celts. Ezra Haber Glenn notes that while real geographic constituents articulate human desires, its mediums of understanding include things as diverse as "travelogues, real and invented biographies, opium-induced confessions, playful and surreal works of art, and other literary, poetic, and geographical flights of fanciful reality (and realistic fantasy)" (1). Gungywamp's story emanates not solely from the physical places that engender its presence, but just as strongly in the murmurs and smoky breaths of the wanderers in its groves.

Situated on Cedar Lake in a traditional straw bale and stucco farmhouse, 42 Social Club is a privately run artist residency and gallery space. Just as the first straw bale houses were built in the late 19th century out of necessity and with little capital, 42 Social Club continues a tradition of DIY culture. Allowing creatives and intellectuals a contemplative space and the freedom to engage nature or introspection in this unique setting, The 42 Social Club's goal is to foster discussion while engaging the greater Lyme community.

The 42 Social Club is pleased to present proxies, surrogates or decoys - a solo exhibition by Brooklyn based artist Jeremy Olson.

OPENING JUNE 23, 2pm-6pm

Born in Ojai, CA; Jeremy Olson is a Brooklyn-based artist working in painting, sculpture and video. These practices are linked by a common interest in the built environment, animist objects, and the various ways that images shape desire. His work has been exhibited in New York as well as Antwerp, Baltimore, Berlin, Melbourne, and Seoul. He has participated in residency programs in Florida, New York, Nebraska, Oslo, and Michigan.

Please join us September 16th for a HUGE show by the amazing Rachel Rampleman. This will be our final exhibition of the season, SAD!

The 42 Social Club is pleased to present TORRENT - a solo exhibition by NYC-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. In this exhibition Rampleman examines the notion of a torrent: defined as both a rushing, violent, unceasing flow and the modern method of pirating digital information. Rampleman will premiere a new multi-channel video installation continuing her explorations into the fascinating world of Youtube makeup tutorials. This time the lens is focused on a strange, politically satirical, trend that has come to be known as "Trumping".

Rampleman’s new work unveils a unique subculture of female/femme-identifying makeup artists imitating, and often mocking, Donald Trump. In TORRENT, Rampleman will contrast these Trumping videos with a series of landscape photographs and additional single / multi-channel video works. The result of this juxtaposition is a reflection on the tumultuous state of the nation highlighting the natural and digital effects of a torrent.

Born and raised in the suburbs of the Midwest, Rampleman creates bodies of work that explore subjects like gender, spectacle, and the excesses of popular culture. Part directorial, part curatorial, and part anthropological, she probes into overlooked elements of our culture to reveal an expanded landscape of American life.

Rampleman’s work frequently showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible female/femme personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity, and who often assume roles stereotypically associated with men. This is a world where sexual braggadocio, heavy-metal rock stardom, or hyper-muscularity have become characteristic of feminine prowess. Working primarily with lens-based media, Rampleman has made work ranging from documentary style videos and photos (such as Girls Girls Girls, the world’s first and only all female Mötley Crüe tribute band), to experimental video series (such as Busby Berkeley 2.0 - in which nostalgic 1930s routines choreographed by Berkeley are transformed into something more hypnotic, industrial and menacing).

David B. Smith holds an MFA from Bard College and has been awarded residencies by Socrates Sculpture Park, Apex Art, New Zealand; Harold Arts, Ohio; Waterpod, and the BOFFO residency, New York. Smith’s work has appeared in exhibitons at MoMA PS 1, The International Center of Photography, Yancey Richardson Gallery, Asia Song Socitey, John Connelly Presents and Halsey McKay Gallery. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Rachel Ostrow is a painter/printmaker living in Brooklyn NY. She holds degrees from Wesleyan University CT and Hunter College NY. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries including recent shows at BRIC Arts Media (Brooklyn NY), Galerie Rene Blouin (Montreal Canada), Kenan Center (Lockport NY), International Print Center New York, among others.

The 42 Social Club in Lyme, Connecticut is pleased to announce it’s inaugural exhibition, Surface Area, new works from Brooklyn based artist Harriet Salmon.

Hailing from a family of scientists and trained as a sculptor, it seems natural that Salmon’s initial point of departure can be seen as asking the question “how is it made”? This question is played out in various modalities; how objects are made in nature; how human beings aspire to make, and what it means to make. In a selection of drawings and sculptures Salmon interrogates these positions.

Commanding the central gallery space, a luminescent tetrahedron sculpture is the viewers’ first encounter. The minimalist geometric sculpture evokes both the natural and manufactured incarnations of the tetrahedron; a basic shape found in molecular structures as well a form utilized in radar technology, geology, engineering and color space theory.

In a suite of drawings Salmon approaches the scientific etchings of 19th century naturalist Ernst Haeckel, renowned as an innovator in cellular research and an extremely talented draftsman. Salmon deals with Haeckel's monolithic amoeboid’s by conflating their imagery with design elements reminiscent of science fiction illustration and heavy metal album cover art - the hybrid of which is an homage to the language of the absolutism in Victorian thought and modernist design.

Harriet Salmon holds a BFA from California College of the Arts (2001) and an MFA from Yale University School of Art (2006). She participated in Socrates Sculpture Parkʼs Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2008 and attended The MacDowell Colony residency in 2009. She has been included in various group exhibitions in New York at the Journal Gallery, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and Postmasters Gallery, among others. Salmon currently lives and works in Brooklyn.